Important Ways to Protect Yourself from Identity Theft

By Amanda RandellPublished: Saturday, October 17th, 2009

Simple but important ways in protecting your self from identity theft are necessary. It will reduce the possibility to become a victim and to avoid identity theft from happening to you. Safety precautions would be able to help you and gain identity theft protection.

It is advisable that you keep your personal information in a very secure place. It is preferable to put it in a lock or safe cabinet in your home. Hide your keys in a safe place. You should be the only one who knows where to find them.

Always review your credit card and telephone bills. This way you can detect if there are unauthorized activity by other person using your credit card information. You can access online to be updated on recent charges.

You should always notify your creditors if you do not receive your bills on time. It may have been stolen or diverted by identity thieves. They can now access and use your credit card giving you more bills to pay.

Never put or print your Social Security number or telephone number on your bank checks. Thieves can steal those vital numbers and enabling them to transact using your name. They can print fraud checks using numbers that they have stolen from you.

You should check your credit report with major credit bureaus at least once a year. By this way, you can look for inaccuracies or for any transactions that you did not authorize. Remember to consider checking credit bureau reports on your children. Identity thieves can use your child by stealing their Social Security number. They can use it to open fraudulent accounts.

It is right that you seek security measures when you work. You need to monitor people who obtained and kept record of your personal information. You can also ask how it is secured. Knowing how personnel records are discarded is also a helpful to be safe.

Never trust or respond to unsolicited e-mails, instant messages, text messages, or website pop-ups saying that it comes from your bank or Credit Card Company. It is better to call the customer department of your credit card provider claiming to be sending messages to ask about the legitimacy of an electronic communication.

You should notify the local Post Office to maintain your mail. You can also ask a person you trust to collect and hold your mail until you return. Mails that have been left in your mailbox can be stolen by identity thieves. They can obtain necessary information through mail and used it against your will.

You can avail an identity theft protection plans that are offered by credit/ charge card provider. As the saying goes, “Prevention is better than cure.”

Card alerts are also available. You can sign to it so that you will be notified if there are irregularities in your account. You will be informed if there are unauthorized activities done by other people through your accounts.

It is better not to give personal information especially your credit card number over phone and on the Internet. Thieves can use these to get essential information from you.